CHENNAI: In a first-of-its-kind attempt in India, the Tamil Nadu forest department is attempting to find a new family and rehabilitate an exotic Cinereous Vulture, which got stranded during the Ockhi cyclone in Kanniyakumari and nurtured by wildlife authorities for five years before a decision was taken to shift the large raptor to a site in Rajasthan where other Cinereous Vultures migrate for wintering.
On Thursday, the bird that was a juvenile when rescued in 2017 was carefully flown in an Air India flight to Machia Biological Park in Jodhpur, which is 2,600 km from Kanniyakumari. Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas Ramachandra Reddy said the vulture will be housed in a large enclosure for a couple of weeks in the biological park for acclimatising before releasing him in a site called ‘Keru’, which is a cattle carcass dumping site outside Jodhpur town.
The Keru site is ideal for the release of the vulture not only because of the presence of other Cinereous vultures but also because food is readily available.
The forest official said the vulture was initially tagged but managed to remove it. Now, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is procuring a more advanced satellite-based radio tag specifically used on vultures and will tag it before the release.
“Cinereous Vultures are originally from northern reaches of Europe and the Siberian region. They fly over the Himalayas and come to Iran, Pakistan and northern parts of India. They rarely visit Tamil Nadu but were previously spotted in Moyar and Kothagiri a few years back. Though exotic, these vultures are endangered species listed under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. So, rescuing and rehabilitating even one bird into the wild contributes immensely to species conservation.”
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary to the government in the Environment, Forests and Climate Change Department, said: “It’s a very special operation. The bird was kept in a cage for nearly four years after it was rescued in 2017, but in the last year, efforts were intensified to rehabilitate it. There is no point in keeping a high-altitude long-distance flying bird in a cage. Hopefully, the vulture named Ockhi finds a new family.”
The Keru site where it will be released has about 40 Cinereous Vultures, which migrated for wintering.
“This is the best time. Vultures will be there for two months before which we hope Ockhi gets accepted and flies back to their place of origin. The radio tagging will help us monitor its movement.”
The vulture was brought to Vandalur Zoo in Chennai by road on October 30 and on Thursday flown to Jodhpur.